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Blackforge Dwarfs
The Blackforge Clan Unlike many southerly dwarf clans, the Blackforge Dwarfs left the Iceflow mountains, seeking a place outside of the war torn homelands of the Kraggadin. A clan made more of craftsmen than warriors, the Blackforge were known from early times of the Ironfoe Empire as the best weapon makers. Ironfoe kings turned to Blackforge weapon-smiths alone when they sought to acquire a new weapon. Because of this wealth flowed into the coffers of Blackforge thanes for generations. With this the Blackforge led nine other clans south, after the fall of the Ironfoe. Downward they moved out of the Iceflow, following a trail set by prospectors and graveltrackers hired before the exodus. Through the largest stretch of Voidlands the Blackforge and their allies fought a running battle to get free, losing a quarter of their number to the pale skinned Wrot and black skinned Urk before making their way towards a burning peak in the far distance. North of the City of Eternal Weaves in the small Onyx Range, the Blackforge Dwarfs found the most active volcano on the Ordainian Continent known as Mount Ironash and there on a tall plateau near the Volcano itself they founded the hold-fast of Maazpals'Dew'Migdhal or the Obsidian Flow Keep. From the high vantage of the the plateau the Blackforge constructed over the course of a hundred years a skybridge that connects the main keep with a second, one directly built into the side of the volcano on its western slopes. At the same time of the construction of the sky bridge the dwarfs used clever engineering and mining techniques to redirect the volcano's wrathful tears to form as a constant river and moat of burning lava. With the main keep to house the clan and provide defense and governance, the Blackforge were proclaimed the royal clan, ascending Kagdan Blackforge to King. It would take another hundred years of warfare to clear the immediate area of a shrilkul and gnollish menace. The second keep was carved within the volcano to be one of the greatest workshop complexes in the dwarfish world, using the natural resources as forges, and the intense heat to forge some of the strongest metals in dwarfdom. Relationships and Trade Clan Blackforge has since its founding at Mount Ironash cultivated a strong relationship with several important partners around them. To the east lies the city states of Bregen, to the northeast the ever pressed kingdom of Prosis. To the south the City of Eternal Weaves and even further south the Empire of Ordain. Strong relationships have also been maintained with the dwarf clans of the north, the Grimaxe and the Dreadhammers as well, which in turn has allowed the Blackforge to create a trading network from north to south, with themselves at the center. Several hundred years after the hold's founding roads and forts were built, connecting the north to Obsidian Flow Keep and then further south into the City of Eternal Weaves and even further into northern Ordain through Seniar and Gressus. This highway of trade has expanded the reach of the Blackforge dwarfs to many corners of the Ordainian Continent. Their masterful weapons can be found in markets as far south as Archus and Argon.